SI.com
Published: December 5, 2011
By: Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian

 

 

When the Dominguez High football team arrived by bus at Compton High for a Friday-afternoon game in September, the Dons players found four police cars parked around the stadium and every entrance to the field in lockdown. The stands had been emptied half an hour earlier as a further security precaution. Such is game day in Compton, where fears of gang activity overshadow even the city's biggest sports rivalry.

After waiting for 10 minutes while guards unchained a padlocked gate in the security fence that surrounds the stadium, the Dominguez players ran onto the field and broke the silence. "The Lord is my shepherd," chanted the team captains in unison.

"I shall not want," the rest of the team shouted back.

SI.com
Published: December 1, 2011
By: Jeff Benedict

 

 

 

The presence of gang members on college sports teams is a topic my colleague Armen Keteyian and I started looking into last spring. After getting an exclusive look at a forthcoming study on the subject, we talked to many experts, but our story didn't come into focus until mid-September when we spent a weekend in Compton, Calif., the birthplace of the Bloods and Crips and one of the leading hot spots for college football and basketball recruiting.

Our first stop was the Los Angeles County Sheriff's substation there, where we met up with Sgt. Brandon Dean, head of the gang unit in Compton. The city's 10-square-mile footprint is home to 34 street gangs and more than 1,000 documented gang members. Dean, 34, agreed to give us a firsthand look. It was a ride I'll never forget.